Next Gen PSP to Have Touch-Sensitive Controls

So, it sounds like Sony has, indeed, been in contact with multiple development studios already (3 of which had said Sony showed them the tech) and has pretty much confirmed that the next generation PSP will be getting touch sensitive controls. The design itself is said to be based on the PSP-3000’s rather than the Go (but that doesn’t mean the design won’t change later on down the road; it could wind up being something completely different altogether). Here’s what they had said about the controls, according to Eurogamer:

…the screen is rich and detailed but the headline feature is the way games are controlled – by a touch-sensitive area on the back of the unit behind the screen.

I’m not entirely sure how that’s going to work. Due to developer feedback, the new PSP2, or whatever it is to be called, will be using flash-based storage media rather than disc-based media; so much for UMD2 I guess :P. This has already stirred some controversy, as users won’t be able to get in on any retail sales on games due to the digital distribution model.

Sony had shown the device with some first party titles that are in development, according to the source. Apparently, they are already settled on a business model for the unit, and is thought to be made available as soon as the end of 2011.

It will be interesting to see how this works with those fancy-sounding controls.

Not sure about this, though…

“This has already stirred some controversy, as users won’t be able to get in on any retail sales on games due to the digital distribution model.”

Sales of what? If it’s a digital distribution console, retailers won’t have anything to have sales of. If they mean sales of PSP UMD games, we don’t even know if it will be backwards-compatible.

I’m not a fan of digital distribution, since I like to have physical media. That said, after the way some retailers bitched about it and refused to sell the PSPgo because it would affect their profits, while simultaneously robbing developers blind by not sharing profits from their resale schemes, I’m a little more for it than I was.

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